Saudi Arabia has beheaded dozens of convicts, including foreign drug traffickers, since the start of the year in what Amnesty International calls an unprecedented pace of executions in the kingdom.

Those put to the sword have included five Pakistanis, an Indian, two Jordanians, two Syrians and a Yemeni, with few foreign governments willing to publicly appeal for clemency from the wealthy Gulf state.

South Korea and Saudi Arabia signed a memorandum on nuclear cooperation during a visit by President Park Geun-Hye that began Tuesday, official media said.

The two sides reached a "memorandum of understanding in the field of nuclear cooperation programs," a partnership in research and skills development, the state Saudi Press Agency said.

The Arab League will consider setting up a defense unit to battle the spread of the Islamic State group at its annual summit later this month, an official said Tuesday.

Deputy chief Ahmed Ben Helli told reporters that the March 28-29 meeting in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh will discuss an Egyptian initiative to create a "unified Arab force".

Saudi Arabia beheaded Tuesday a rapist and two murderers, bringing to 38 the number of death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year.

Saudi Mohammed bin Ali bin Mohammed al-Bishi was convicted of raping his victim at gunpoint, the interior ministry said in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi called Tuesday for troubled U.N.-brokered reconciliation talks to be moved to neighboring Saudi Arabia if agreement cannot be reached on a venue inside Yemen.

The call came as at least 32 people were killed in clashes between Shiite Huthi gunmen and Sunni tribesmen backed Al-Qaida militants in central Yemen, tribal source said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived Monday in Riyadh for a visit at the king's invitation in what is seen as a Saudi bid to unify Sunnis against Iran and jihadists.

Erdogan's meeting with King Salman comes a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held talks with the monarch, and precedes a visit by Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif later this week.

A Saudi diplomat kidnapped in Yemen almost three years ago and handed to al-Qaida has been freed and returned to the kingdom, the interior ministry said Monday.

Abdullah al-Khalidi, deputy consul in the southern port city of Aden, who was kidnapped on March 28, 2012, was freed following "intense efforts" by the Saudi intelligence services, a ministry statement carried by the official SPA news agency said without elaborating.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held talks in Riyadh on Sunday, coinciding with a visit to Saudi Arabia by his Turkish counterpart who Cairo accuses of backing the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose relations have been strained since Sisi ousted his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, did not meet in the oil-rich Gulf state.

A Saudi convicted of shooting dead a compatriot was beheaded on Sunday, bringing to 35 the number of death sentences carried out in the kingdom this year.

Mahdi Khalaf al-Shamrani was found guilty of killing Saeed Msaed al-Aklabi following a dispute over land, the interior ministry said.

Saudi Arabia on Thursday beheaded an Indian axe murderer and a Pakistani heroin trafficker, bringing to 34 the number of death sentences carried out this year.

Vijay Kumar Saleem, of India, was convicted of killing a Yemeni by striking him in the head with the axe, an interior ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency said.